Nathan Merritt

[dogslife]

Lol@Souffs spastics blaming Merritt's diabolical performance on Morris.

 

[BranVan3000]

WTF are you talking about? Thurston and slater are well marked. boyd is only one with free space infront of him, you blind, agenda driven merkin. just cop it that your precious merritt isnt a origin players asshole.

Thurston has three players to pass to against two defenders. How are they marked?

The whole team should have been over further, if Merritt is out on his wing then he is covering fifteen meters of no mans land by himself and his center has no support

This was the issue the whole night, Pearce, Lewis and Morris were simply letting Thurston create numbers by letting him run across the ruck and by being drawn by obvious decoys.

Thurston was going to create something in this situation regardless of what Merritt did because they had the numbers.. Merritt is incidental here at best.

 

[BranVan3000]

Lol@Souffs spastics blaming Merritt's diabolical performance on Morris.

I'm not blaming Morris at all, in fact he was just as let down by his inside men as Merritt was. Look at game one, the Blues only let Thurston get the ball wide on one occasion. This time he was able to do whatever he wanted, and the Blues just spectated

Merritt was over enthusiastic, but he didn't deviate from what the coach asked him to do

 

[DOGS AND EELS!!!]

You can see Morris already had him marked one on one, Merrit rushed in the idiot. Morris made a strong tackle on Inglis at the beginning to shut down an attacking raid on that side, I don't know why Merritt had to get himself involved the other times.

 

[Springs]

David Williams was aweful in origin but at least he took some hit ups and scored a couple of tries. Merritt did less than nothing. BranVan's picture clearly shows all the NSW players sliding out while Merritt is caught coming in, ending up in no-man's land and exposing his wing. The only possible result was a try to QLD.

Any attempt to justify his play simply defies logic.

Merritt made more runs and more metres than Brett Morris did. So Morris did less than less than nothing and should be dropped as well.

 

[Bumble]

Worst kind of game he could have debuted in. When the whole team plays horribly, gives away penalties, gets sin binned etc and you're put under a ton of pressure inside your own twenty for most of the game, it's the worst feeling for a winger. It's tough when the rest of the team through their shit play puts him in that position and then everyone blames him when a try is scored.

Blaming him completely for tries he let in is like saying Boyd's tries were completely solo efforts. In saying that he clearly played poorly and if Stewart and Hayne are back they are the better option.

A few years ago Brett Morris did the exact same thing., in multiple games. I don't know how he is still there either.

This is a great post - I've not tried to defend Merritt at all since last night but he was absolutely not helped by his centre and two halves playing equally terribly.

And on the other wing, Brett Morris made even less metres than Merritt did!

 

[betcats]

3 on 2 and Merrit charges in and takes no one, not even the ball, twice.

No matter what the plan was and whether we were short defensively he still clearly f**ked up, anyone who doesnt think so should watch the footage again, Merrit makes it easier for qld to score.

 

[DOGS AND EELS!!!]

I'm not blaming Morris at all, in fact he was just as let down by his inside men as Merritt was. Look at game one, the Blues only let Thurston get the ball wide on one occasion. This time he was able to do whatever he wanted, and the Blues just spectated

Merritt was over enthusiastic, but he didn't deviate from what the coach asked him to do

No one let down Merritt as much as he let everyone else down.

 

[Someone]

Thurston has three players to pass to against two defenders. How are they marked?

The whole team should have been over further, if Merritt is out on his wing then he is covering fifteen meters of no mans land by himself and his center has no support

This was the issue the whole night, Pearce, Lewis and Morris were simply letting Thurston create numbers by letting him run across the ruck and by being drawn by obvious decoys.

Thurston was going to create something in this situation regardless of what Merritt did because they had the numbers.. Merritt is incidental here at best.

YES because merritt raced up to the line and is literally in no mans land. he stays wide the slide defence can cover everyone else. slater thurston and inglis are all marked.

 

[AlwaysGreen]

Morris struggled because he had no confidence in Merritt.

 

[Joker's Wild]

The numbers are there?

Imagine Merritt way out on the right marking Boyd. That leaves Morris marking Inglis, Slater plus Thurston on his own. Somebody had to come in there much earlier and attack Thurston, but Pearce and Lewis are standing back on their heels. It doesn't help that Pearce and Lewis are drawn by the decoy here too, leaving the outside men fending for themselves.

Merritt was told to rush up on Inglis. Still not the right choice here, but if that was the plan then obviousl cover from behind was part of it too and cover made it in behind, there should be no excuse for Boyd to push off Dugan and Pearce so easily.

Merritt shouldn't play another Origin, but lets not scapegoat him for other players who shouldn't wear the shirt again either

No, it doesnt. Thurston was marked by the 2 players inside Morris and Slater was covered from the defender coming inside (Pearce?), or at least should have been

Neither Merritt nor Pearce should be selected again. They were both the worst NSW performers on the night

 

[DOGS AND EELS!!!]

J.Moz is already the proven performer, he was solid all last year and the first game this year - then Merritt happened

 

[BranVan3000]

No, it doesnt. Thurston was marked by the 2 players inside Morris and Slater was covered from the defender coming inside (Pearce?), or at least should have been

Neither Merritt nor Pearce should be selected again. They were both the worst NSW performers on the night

Lewis was drawn and arguably taken out by the decoy. Pearce is just fumbling around there not knowing where to go. Ultimately there is an overlap there and the NSW players are back on their heels. Inglis is marked there, and Slater is marked there. But only because Merritt is up and in, if Merritt is out wide then Morris has a two on one with the best two fullbacks in the world.

Regardless, Merritt makes a poor read but Boyd never should have made it past Dugan who got bumped out of tackles all night

Merritt, Dugan, Pearce should all go. Maloney too, that defensive display was simply diabolical

NSW have better players in all these positions by game three. But especially in the halves, they refuse to use them

 

[Joker's Wild]

Lewis was drawn and arguably taken out by the decoy. Pearce is just fumbling around there not knowing where to go. Ultimately there is an overlap there and the NSW players are back on their heels. Inglis is marked there, and Slater is marked there. But only because Merritt is up and in, if Merritt is out wide then Morris has a two on one with the best two fullbacks in the world.

Regardless, Merritt makes a poor read but Boyd never should have made it past Dugan who got bumped out of tackles all night

Merritt, Dugan, Pearce should all go. Maloney too, that defensive display was simply diabolical

NSW have better players in all these positions by game three. But especially in the halves, they refuse to use them

We arent going to agree on Merrits positioning here but we can agree on the bolded at least

 

[oldmancraigy]

3 on 2 and Merrit charges in and takes no one, not even the ball, twice.

No matter what the plan was and whether we were short defensively he still clearly f**ked up, anyone who doesnt think so should watch the footage again, Merrit makes it easier for qld to score.

But but but, Merritt DID jump in the air and wave his hand and feet around.

IT kinda looked cool. We should pick him again just for that.

 

[BranVan3000]

We arent going to agree on Merrits positioning here but we can agree on the bolded at least

I agree he made a bad read, but you can even see in that gif how much room Thurston has, how many options our defence is letting him take. Inglis, Boyd, Slater. Nobody is pressuring the man with the ball, just waiting for the pass so they can pressure the next guy. That was the major difference to game one. We terrorised Smith, Cronk and Thurston in game one. I've never seen those players play as poorly as they did in game one because we cut their decision making time down.

Merritt looks like the idiot on the end of these plays, but the whole group failed.

 

[BranVan3000]

3 on 2 and Merrit charges in and takes no one, not even the ball, twice.

No matter what the plan was and whether we were short defensively he still clearly f**ked up, anyone who doesnt think so should watch the footage again, Merrit makes it easier for qld to score.

I can agree with that, regardless of the coaches orders its clear Merritt was playing the man and not the ball

I wonder if Queensland were expecting it. Ferguson had much the same plan and it worked, this time it looked like Thurston was waiting for it

 

[gronkathon]

Difference between Game 1 and 2 is the Fergo holds his position and slides out because he has the size to dominate Boyd and force him out. Merritt just cannot do that and made the read that suits his physical capabilities

 

[God-King Dean]

"I'm not too sure what it is, maybe it's a Souths thing or it's a racial thing
"They don't like indigenous players coming through the representative ranks."
-Nathan Merritt.

 

[BranVan3000]

Difference between Game 1 and 2 is the Fergo holds his position and slides out because he has the size to dominate Boyd and force him out. Merritt just cannot do that and made the read that suits his physical capabilities

The ball only got out to GI two or three times in game one, the guys in the middle did a great job pressuring Thurston into bad decisions. Which they failed to do last night. The one time GI got clean ball in game one he shrugged of Morris and Ferguson came in on GI, tripped, and GI passed to Boyd for a try

Fergo would have looked bad last night too. Though perhaps less so